pastasalad

Hey Eve glad your back-you dont know this BUT you are the reason i continued to hang around at GD! You were so nice last yr to let me being so new, join in on the SS exchange! So it's good to see your lil butterfly back!

we have a Shoguns here, which is just like Benihana's we LOVE it-I bet you do miss Benihana's, wonderful restaurant Christmas Eve for us starts out like most peoples Christmas mornings... while I make breakfast the kids grab their stockings,after we eat,we open gifts. Then we all get cleaned up and midafternoon we go to dh's dads house for christmas Eve Festivities-at some point in the afternoon my ex comes and gets our 2 older children,later that evening we head to my moms for cocktails,appetizers,fun&games something like Christmas Bingo-very informal but fun-since my mom doesnt do her Christmas until Dec 31, there arent a lot of relatives there at this time-so we get some quality time with Grandma. Once back at home we get cheese & crackers ready for Santa,track santa on the norad,tuck dd into bed,snuggle up and read The Night Before Christmas, then Mr & Mrs Clause get busy getting Santa gifts out(3gifts for each child from Santa-this represents the 3 Kings/Wisemen who brought gifts to baby Jesus) and munching on cheese & crackers Finally collapse in bed only to wake up and go to 3 more Houses Christmas Day~

sometimes we go see a movie-but usually I am trying to find spots for everthing that everyone got-I "try" and restore the order in the kids rooms which by this point look like disaster areas.

Do You Hear What I Hear? Said the night wind to the little lamb, "Do you see what I see? Way up in the sky, little lamb, Do you see what I see? A star, a star, dancing in the night With a tail as big as a kite, With a tail as big as a kite." Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy, "Do you hear what I hear? Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy, Do you hear what I hear? A song, a song high above the trees With a voice as big as the the sea, With a voice as big as the the sea." Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king, "Do you know what I know? In your palace warm, mighty king, Do you know what I know? A Child, a Child shivers in the cold-- Let us bring him silver and gold, Let us bring him silver and gold." Said the king to the people everywhere, "Listen to what I say! Pray for peace, people, everywhere, Listen to what I say! The Child, the Child sleeping in the night He will bring us goodness and light, He will bring us goodness and light."

Thats a GREAT idea I will have to try this for my daughters class party. I try to keep candy canes on hand,I found out last yr during testing at the middle school that candy canes can help students do better on tests...go figure

There are lotsa things I would love to have,but they seem so trivial and selfish when I think about what others are giving up for me....

Thats so sweet peachiekeen!

cool thanks for the link! You can even track santa on Christmas eve

lisamag you have been a member since 2005 I doubt you will have any probs joining in this yr! Eve set those stipulations last yr b/c of the fact some people say they want to participate then something happens and they dont follow through-plus it was risk taking on us newbies not knowing if we would follow through- did you not realize if you sign up for any of the 3 you do get something in return? It really is a lot of fun-I was a noob last yr so I got a noob but it was fun searching/reading her posts to try and find things she really liked and making sure i picked out a great ss gift- my ss last yr sent me a lovely bubble/bath salt set I cant wait till this starts up again!

guess I am the only non-traditional one out there-I swear it was those darn cheese commercials that did my children in!

I technically wasnt a member long enough either droolbug bug, I pretty much begged Eve to let me-it was a lot of fun and am so looking forward to this yrs~

It's good to see other snowmen fanatics in here-I think they are soooo adorable-I even have Holiday dinnerware in snowman theme not just decorations...

my dd almost 10 did until last yr-when her lovely big brother told her otherwise-of course I played dumb and said WHAT Santas not real??? I still believe and so should you-my oldest dd 14 said she still believes so that helped me out tons with my youngest...it's all so magical and I think in their hearts they really do believe! at least I sure hope so~!

TY! I have to admit we do love your love last pick of the Christmas Cartoon Classics-I grew up on those,also realllly like the santa clause movies with Tim Allen-I was just trying to pick my top 5(since I couldnt pick just one) and that was hard enough-but those 5 are staples around here-I even said to dh last night I couldnt wait till the holidays so I could watch Elf over & over and no one would think i was crazy-his response we already know your crazy! embarresed to say I have never seen Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas or Dolly Pardon's Smoky Mountain Christmas-I will have to look for those. If you ask my ds he would say his fav Christmas Movie is 8 Crazy Nights-questionable I know, but it does have a good message

we have a fake pre-lit tree

I have very good penmanship

Yes and actually I already have my christmas cards done big lots had a huge 75% off sale and i was bored one day when the kids were at school LOL

Snowmen

Santa brings 3 gifts to our house we do the rest-

my top 5 National Lampoons Christmas Vacation Elf Polar Express It's a Wonderful Life A Christmas Story

I dream of a white Christmas but it would wreak havoc if we actually had one with all the homes we have to visit in those 2 days...

Cheese & Crackers!!!! ever since that commercial LOL thats what the kids want to leave.

I was just talking about this to Colleen cant wait,cant wait... this yr I plan to do all 3, last yr i only did the ss exchange love the sig Colleen!

since I am remarried we have 5 places to be between Christmas eve and day-plus we have to share the 2 older children with my ex and his family,so our children usually open our gifts Christmas eve morning(that has become our Christmas morning-since they typically arent here) then they do santa gifts when they get home from their dads- It gets crazy...